First drive: BMW 3-Series

German maker introduces cheaper sedans that don?t feel cheaper.

First drive: BMW 3-Series

01 June 2012Barry Park

Buyers settling into to their first-ever BMW-badged car are probably used to feeling envious.

Their new car drives well, but is pretty basic inside and out - a point driven home the first time a more expensive version of the same model pulls up beside them at the traffic lights, and all of a sudden that Euro luxury they thought they had appears no better than an upmarket Holden Commodore.

However, that is all now squarely in the past. That’s because this week BMW slipped two new cheaper models into its 3-Series range that look, feel and drive a lot richer than their price tags would suggest.

The 3-Series is the biggest seller for BMW, so it is important to get its specification right in the face of fierce competition in the entry-level luxury sedan segment.

BMW 318d

Priced from $56,400 before all the onroad costs and the inevitable graze through the options list - all the press cars had sunroofs at this week’s launch, because in BMW’s words, the 3-Series is almost unsaleable without one - the 318d doesn’t overtly shout its cheaper price tag.

German maker introduces cheaper sedans that don?t feel cheaper.

The 318d is powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder diesel engine mated to the standard eight-speed automatic, and sits on high-profile 16-inch wheels wearing run-flat tyres.

Open the door and you’re not immediately thinking you could have done better.

Slip behind the wheel and the artificial leather seats are comfortable enough even though they lack a bit of shoulder support, and you have to adjust the seats manually.

But cast an eye around, and there are few signs of the blank switches that used to make it blatantly obvious the car you were driving was a stripper, and there’s enough of a luxury feel from the faux aluminium and pearl-finish plastic chrome to give the impression it’s a luxury car. It’s probably the first base-model BMW I’ve ever sat in that hasn’t felt like one.

Start the engine via the dash-mounted button - don’t worry about the key, as the entire 3-Series has keyless start - and the diesel quietly hums into life.

The engine only generates 105kW of power, but its attraction is the 320Nm of torque – or pulling power - the engine develops from not far off idle.

On paper it’s slow to get going, officially timed at a rather uninspired 9.3secs for the 0-100km/h sprint, but in real life it’s easy to keep up with city traffic.

In fact, once on the move, the in-gear acceleration that makes the 318d a fairly solid commuter car.

All the while, it is quiet and develops only a bit of diesel rumble as revs rise, helped by the rapid-fire and smooth-changing eight-speed auto.

The auto has three of the four settings of other models in the 3-Series range, swapping between an economy mode that buries throttle response in a bowl of cold porridge, a default mode that is the pick of the settings, and a sport mode that really only exposes the diesel engine’s worst attributes, creating gear changes that are snappy and a little under-refined.

In that respect, it doesn’t miss the paddle shifters that are standard in other models.

Driven conservatively, too, its 4.5 litre per 100 kilometre official fuel use figure shouldn’t be difficult to hit. On a solid mix of city and country driving, we managed 5.5L/100km without being overtly conservative with the throttle.

Fuel economy is helped in heavy traffic by the range-wide standard stop-start system that kills the engine while the 3-Series is stopped at the lights, while crawling in traffic benefits from the big swell of torque.

The brakes are progressive, the cabin is quiet, and although it hangs on around corners the ride is a little softer than we’ve come to expect from the traditionally hard-riding BMW suspension set-ups. It’s almost Mercedes-Benz C-Class in its nature.

It suits the character of the car, because the 318d is definitely not a performance model.

BMW 320i

If there’s a single car that has defined BMW’s fortunes in Australia, it’s the 320i. In its previous guise, the former entry-level sedan had accounted for up to half of the company’s sales here. Cars such as the 7-Series, the Z4, and even the M models might look good in the showroom, but the company’s success is built on this model.

The new one, then, has to pick up from where the old one has left off. One of the things that won’t change, though, is the three-month wait if a customer wants a car that doesn’t come off the showroom floor. As it is, the 3-Series is already sold out for up to five months, so that means your Bimmer ordered now will be in the driveway sometime early next year.

Pricing starts from $57,600, so it’s not a huge step up from the 318d.

The extra $1200 introduces a new-generation 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine developing 135kW of power and 270Nm of torque, an increase of 17 per cent in power and 22 per cent in torque over the previous model.

That cuts the 0-100km/h sprint by more than 20 per cent to 7.6secs, while fuel use falls a similar percentage to officially sit at a combined 6.0L/100km, a figure that undercuts petrol-engined rivals from Mercedes-Benz and Audi (and even that other luxury brand, Lexus, that fails to even get a mention in BMW’s press material).

The 320i’s interior has a similar look and feel to its diesel sibling, although there are slight differences.

The most obvious is a pair of paddle shifters hidden in behind the steering wheel. That’s because the 320i gets an extra gearbox setting - Sport plus - that sharpens up the throttle response and holds on to gears a lot longer, while allowing the driver to have a bit more freedom before the car’s electronic brain steps in to keep the 3-Series pointed in the right direction.

On idle, the 320i’s 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine is smooth and quiet. As revs rise there’s a bit of a raucous edge to the engine, but it doesn’t cross the divide between sounding sporty to just sounding uncouth. Again, it’s a great match between responsive engine and sharp-shifting gearbox.

The 320i’s replacement is a good step forward. In base-model form there’s still the plastic trim and false leather, however the front parking sensors will probably make a big difference in the junior executive’s car park.

The 320i sits on slightly larger 17-inch alloys compared with its cheaper diesel sibling, filling the wheel wells slightly better but introducing a slightly firmer ride - that’s the BMW we’re used to. In terms of everyday comfort, the set-up on Mercedes-Benz’s C-Class is probably the more sensible pick, but BMWs are, as the company stresses, all for the driver.

Is the new-generation 320i better than the last? The answer is a definite ‘‘yes’’. Is it the best pick for luxury car buyers? That probably comes down to how fast you want to go around corners.